BOLTON Business School is moving into Hong Kong - as the British Government moves out.

As colonial rule ends, the Business School (part of Bolton Institute) has gone into partnership with Hong Kong's Centre for Educational Development.

It is to provide a Master of Science course in Business Computing Systems.

The School will use distance learning methods already well-established in other subjects to deliver instruction for existing Hong Kong graduates to upgrade their qualifications.

This involves the preparation of study packs, visits of Bolton Business School staff to Hong Kong for tutorials with assistance from local academics and continuous communications with the Far Eastern students during the two-year course by e-mail and Internet.

The Business School already delivers distance learning courses for BA and BSc degrees in business and computing to students in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.

The new course is the first one to Masters standard.

"We are now developing similar links with universities in Shanghai and South China," said Professor Alan Kitson, Dean of Bolton Business School.

The School has also made a franchise agreement with the College of Administrative Sciences in the Persian Gulf state of Oman for the college to teach the first year of the Business School's BA (Hons) Business Studies course.

Students who complete the first year successfully will then come to Bolton for the remaining two years of the course.

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